001I'd like to call this meeting to order. The mission of the Freehold Township School District is to honor and support every learner every day on the journey to become curious and engaged members of a diverse global community. A notice listing the time, date, and place of this meeting was posted on the public bulletin board of all Freel township schools on the entrance door to the administrative offices of the board of education on the district website at the office of the Freel township clerk, published in the Asbury Park Press on January 11th, 2025 and sent to the Star Ledger on January 8th, 2025. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with
002liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Can I get a roll call, Mr. Review? >> Mr. Brand. >> Dr. Casey >> here. >> Miss Crosby here. >> Mr. Ro here. >> Miss Lambert >> here. >> Mrs. Wheeler >> here. >> Mr. Williams >> here. >> Mrs. O Sullivan >> present. >> Mr. Amaroso >> here. Thank you. Can I get a motion for the approval of the September 30th, 2025 regular meeting minutes? >> Motion. >> All those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? Was anybody absent last time? >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Okay. Can I get a motion for the approval of the September 30th, 2025 executive session? >> Second. Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> And one abstension. >> Okay. Communications. >> Uh the only communication we have
003is enrollment. Um in June of 25, we ended with 3,416 students. Compared to September of 25, we had 3,345. And compared to the September 24, we had 3,46. So that's only communication for the evening. >> Great. So, um, right now I believe we're going to roll our screen over to the front and I'm going to give some remarks and then we're going to go right into the data with Mrs. Montgomery. We might want to move administrator. Um, and Ellen, I came down. Oh, thank you. >> Got it. >> Okay. Yeah, this is really just informal slideshow. I just while we got there, uh, we thought, you know what? Let's try to visit every single vendor or educator, whoever we bump into that has done business with Freehole Township. So, the first person that we saw
004was the uh Laura Bishop Communications. And so, we put our little pin right on Freehold Township. The way they have it is if you visit their booth, you get to put your pin in there, especially if you're their customer. So, we we start we decided to take a visit. So, what I did was I gave every single board member a handout with businesses that we do business with in Freel Township. And as part I know people were talking about onboarding and some of the new board members. Um this is important to keep in your folder. So if we're ever having a meeting you'll see uh Bob sometimes talk about some of these companies. Sometimes Diane will start complaining about things that frontline and things that she works with and you'll hear about I Ready Mrs.
005Montgomery. So anyway we can go to the next slide. So I was bullish. Uh but it was I Ready. So of course we were with Mrs. Montgomery that day and she loves I Ready and You can see how excited we were and she loves link it too. Um the descriptions of what all these companies uh do and if you look the people that work at these boos are really excited cuz they work with our staff and they know us. So it's nice to go down and and kind of you know get to know all the people uh that are help managing our kids. We can go to the next one. So next there's a big one. Um so obviously they do our food service. Okay, here if you're into asbestous, you can talk to all
006those guys. Speed roll. We're going to be doing 140 plus million dollars worth of architectural work for our district. All our new buildings. We can't wait to see all the new elevations coming up. Okay, Genesis. Gosh, we all know Genesis. No, I see the guy in the back. He's the guy. No, I'm just kidding. All right. School specialty surprise. Elena was like, "I see them all the time on the boys list." Alena spotted it. Alena was like, "There they are. I already sign I see their vouchers." >> Okay. Um Board Docs, there's for the board. So, every time we log in and uh you go to download your agenda and you see how organized everything is, you can thank Board Docs. We were really excited to see us sine. >> Okay. >> Human capital management
007uh staff attendance. Okay. Scay. There you go. He was really >> Phil asked a lot of questions. He loves free lunch. He loves us. He was asking us all kinds of questions. like systems 3000. >> Yeah, that's a big one. That That's a big one. Accounting payroll. Where's Bob? Let me disappear. Gaggle. There he is. Gaggle. So, they do the software that monitors online safety. Um and so we bumped into that and chatted with them a little bit. Next one is open systems, open systems security. Um you can see all the stuff they do under that. Lockdown access control Phoenix advisors. Actually that came up in our committee meeting, right Michelle? Municipal uh work that Bob does the taxes. There's the crew there. once. Can't do anything without a good layer. Not the dental. Neil
008had the toothbrush. >> He made me [laughter] >> uh Udica Insurance. That was a big one when we were dealing with Tumco. So, uh roofing company. How important is that? It definitely takes a lot to get Neil to smile like that. uh safety wire. Um so I have learned a lot about that and he'll take that as shot like you know you can lock down the I'm like don't touch that don't touch that um SI um they were there more insurance Arthur Gallagher I think was next benefits and then finally we met up with the New Jersey Department of Education. So 23 booths that um everybody kind of eyed that oh you need to go talk with them and they all know about Fel Township. So what I did was um part of this uh
009board's action plan was to try um to create a little bit of a better onboarding process, right? So keeping this in our folders for every meeting, especially new board members when we're going through the agenda and one of these companies comes up, you're like, I don't remember what they do. we can either put this as an online shared document and we can keep adding names to it or keep it in your folder. So, I just wanted to point that out. Thank everybody for coming down and also to show the board that next year we need a better attendance. We need everyone to try to at least get down for a couple of days, go to the seminars. In my second presidential remarks, I'll talk a little about AI and what we learned at AI. But
010now I'm gonna turn it over to Becky because I think the next slide is the NJSLA de. You want to keep this mic or do a different one? >> Thank you so much. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Um I hope my presentation is as much fun. Um, we are going to spend some time this evening talking about um, Andrew, is the audio okay if I leave the microphone on the table? I don't need to hold it, do I? >> Okay. Thank you. Um, I'm going to share some information this evening about student assessment um for DM and also for NJSLA. Um, as a reminder, DLM is the assessment that um, we give to students in the district who are identified as having the most significant intellectual disabilities. These are students whose IEPs um, identify them
011to take an alternate assessment to measure their progress towards state standards because they are not able to be successful on NJSLA. Um, DM has been in place in New Jersey as the alternate assessment since 2014 and 15. So, I'm going to share some um data over time with you for all of our um tested information and for board members information. There is a packet of these slide a packet of the these slides in your folders for this evening. I tried to also include in the um in the presentation both data charts like this but also some graphs because visually I feel like the data is a little bit easier to see and understand in graph form. So um DM similar to the access test scores that I presented previously um a small population of our
012students are assessed using this test. So there are places where our data is suppressed. So you will see in places on this data chart where it says less than 10. There's no data reported in that those columns because less than 10 students took the assessment at that grade level or in that content area. Um and as such we are not allowed to publicly report that data because there's such a small number of kids. But some things that I want to highlight for you right this one. Okay. >> 42 look at me. 42 students took the assessment. >> No idea what I'm doing. There's a stylist. 42 students took this assessment in 2025. You'll see that number sort of varies over time. And we have um two levels of proficiency. So 36 + 10 46% of
013our students that took the assessment were proficient in this assessment. >> Now I can go. Oh, look at me. Okay. This um this visual shows our data from the previous slide but it shows it in the performance levels so that you can see the difference um in how we are moving kids in uh through and up performance levels. So try this again in some other capacity. You'll notice in 2023 we had 46% of students that were in the red and in 2024 we decreased that to 14%. In 2025 we went back up a bit but we are also increasing the number of students at these levels of higher levels of proficiency. This is our um data for math again. same 42 students, 26% of these kiddos um scored proficient in math and the DLM. [snorts]
014This is that same proficiency level data for math. And then for science, again, because we have such a small number of kiddos taking this test and we only administer science to grades five and grade eight, we have no data that I can um present publicly. One of the other things that I am obligated to report when we look at student data is our subgroups. So, this group of data looks at our students that took DLM in language arts in the um race categories. So, at the elementary level, the middle level, and at the bottom in all grades, 44% of um those students, again, based on um on their race, Asian, black, Hispanic, or white, 44% of those kiddos were proficient. This is the same demographic data for math and for science. Again, I apologize for
015science, but because we have so few kiddos, we have to suppress that data publicly. This looks at um our subgroup data based on gender. Um this population of students is predominantly male. So, we have very few female students um in our um that are required to take this assessment. You'll notice the the large number difference. I'm just going to use my little red laser, but I could use here. Um remember, we have 42 students total. 35 of them were male. Less than 10 came out. district. >> That's in the whole district. >> That's the whole district. Yes. Uh again, oh, oops, I skipped. Sorry. These are this is the other subgroup. These are our students who qualify for federal free and reduced lunch. These are are students whose family income places them at the federal
016poverty level. So again, all of the students in this group are in the subgroup of special education by virtue of qualifying to take the DM. They also, some of them um uh receive free and reduced lunch services. 16 of those 42 kiddos. So, um, in chatting with Chris Kuffy and the ED services department, we talked and analyzed this data. And one of the goals that the ED services department is working on really closely is working collaboratively with administrators, child study team members, case managers, and the self-contained program teachers to really um have a focused alignment and development of IEP goals so that all of the stakeholders that are part of this IEP team, including school staff and families, um are really well-versed on the building of goals and objectives as well as accommodations and modifications
017in kids IEPs to help them be successful both with um their IEP goals but also to be successful on the um this the standards and strands that kids are being assessed on in this assessment. Okay, moving on to NJSLA. Um so a little summary data. Um, first in your folders, you will notice that I included a uh little infographic for you that has some summary data. I asked AI to take a little information from our large scale data and give me some highlights as a summary for you. Um, I thought it was appropriate as we're talking about our draft AI guidelines and committees this evening. Um, [snorts] so if you are interested in some highlights, take a look at that infographic. Here's um just some summary information for you. We continue um students in our
018district continue to outperform students across New Jersey in ELA, math, and science. Our district scores are higher than the state averages in each of those content areas. Um we are continuing to note student growth for cohorts of students and I'll show you that in the presentation as we go through. When we follow a group of students across time, across three years, um those kids are growing year after year after year. Um, one of the things I know that I have shared with you in these presentations in the past is that when we see growth for students, that growth then impacts achievement over time. So, one of the things you're going to start noticing in our graphs as we look at data over time is um like an upward trajectory of the bars on our graph.
019Remember, in recent years, we've seen sort of variable um data or even in in you know, three or four years ago, a downward trend. um what you want to see is both growth among a cohort of students but also an upward trajectory to indicate achievement at grade levels. And we're seeing both of those things. And our district benchmark data is also continuing to serve as uh an analytic tool and a driver for how we are preparing and supporting kids in being successful on these high stakes tests. Okay. So let's start with language arts. This first three sets of data charts that I'm going to share with you look at our student performance for grades three through eight in the areas of language arts and math and science. This one is language arts. Um it's helpful
020to look for us to look at student growth over the years. So these data charts include our performance in each of the content areas over the last three years. Um remember language arts and math are measured on a fivepoint um proficiency. science is only four. So we'll you'll notice a difference when we when we look to compare those two students who score at level four and level five which is meeting and exceeding are the kids who are identified as proficient in um on NJSLA for language arts and for math. So let me see if I can use a little do a little highlighting here for you. Okay. So 66% of our students were meeting or exceeding meeting or exceeding proficiency in language arts. 66% of our kids. That's an overall increase of 2.7% from last
021year across all grades. And it's 13% higher than the state average of the state proficiency rate of 53%. Sorry, doing a lot of running around here. Um, okay. For math [clears throat] again, we're going to look at all grades. Oops. 60.5% of our students are meeting or exceeding proficiency in math. This is an overall increase of 3.9% from last year. It's also 18.6% higher than the state proficiency of 41.9. So our 50 60.5 18 and a half points higher than the state and for science. Sorry, probably should have. >> Yes. Question. >> You want to wait until like we're back around the table? >> Yes, that would be easier for me. >> Okay, cool. >> Thank you so much. >> You got it. >> Um, and in the area of science, we have number four
022levels of proficient. So, we're looking at proficient and advanced proficient. This is 30% of our kiddos in science meeting or exceeding. This is an increase of 5.2% from last year, which is fabulous. Also 3.3% higher than the state proficiency rate of 26.7. Here's some visuals to some graphs to take a look at. Um, this is our subgroup data. So, we're going to start with uh race. We're going to look at um how our subgroups and race perform for language arts, math, and science. Then we'll look at um program and also at gender. So, this slide demonstrates student proficiency AC across um ELA for the last three years. Hispanic students represent the largest subgroup of our um population demographically, representing about 14% of our student population. These students have demonstrated consistent growth, our Hispanic students over
023the last three years, increasing their ELA proficiency from 48% to 50% to 51%. While our black students represent 4% of our total population tested, they also have demonstrated consistent growth in the postcoid years from 44% proficiency in 2023 to 46 to 47. These are the same demographics in math. Again, our Hispanic students being the largest subgroup um of of our students. their proficiency increased from 41% in 2023 to 40% to 45% in 2025. And our black students also showed impressive growth from 23 to 25, increasing by seven points over the last three years. In the area of ini in science, all of our demographic groups of students experienced an increase in performance from 24 to 25 with our black students growing by 10% and our Hispanic students growing by four. [clears throat] This next group
024of slide looks at students um the subgroup of gender for ELA. 73% of our female students scored proficient and 60% of our male students scored proficient in math. 58% of our female students proficient in math. 63% of our male students were proficient. And in science, 20% 20, excuse me, 27% of our female students proficient and 32% of our male students were proficient. These are our subgroups. um our multilingual students, our ESL, which are our ESL students. Again, our free and reduced lunch um population of students, those students living below the poverty level, our students qualifying for section 504 under the federal section 504 guidelines, and our students in um receiving special education services. For our uh ML students, 11% of those students demonstrated proficiency in language arts. For our economically disadvantaged students, 49, excuse me,
02549% of those students demonstrated proficiency in language arts. For our students with uh with 504s, 64% of those students were proficient. And for our um special education students, 22% proficient in language arts. In math, the ELLL proficiency rate was 14%. The free and reduced proficiency rate was 43%. 504 was 61% proficiency and special ed was 20% proficient. And in science, you'll notice no um data set for ELLL. That's because it's such a small number of kids, that data set is suppressed. Um, our free and reduced students, 16% were proficient. Our 504 students, 44% were proficient. And our special education students, 6% proficient. The next batch of slides I want to look at shows us some longitudinal data. So, we can look at kids uh look at our district data over time. Um, as I shared
026before, we've, excuse me, continued to see growth among cohorts, positively impacting our district's overall levels of achievement while also allowing us to make some really solid and responsive curricular changes. Um, in response to the data, um, I would be remiss before I share this with you without acknowledging the work of our students, our teachers, our administrative team, the supervisors, the curriculum department for some really impressive growth that we've seen for kids over time that I'm exceptionally proud of. All right, let's see if I can do this with my little pen here. So these next two graphs look at our language arts data. This is kids who are meeting it or exceeding. So these are the kids who are proficient in language arts percent proficiency across the grade levels and then over the last five years.
027So four of those years being postcoid and the first year being 201819 precoid. So we remember we have a two-year gap. And what you'll notice and what we've talked about in the past is that this these graphs often show some variability, right? There's some up, there's some down, but when you follow a cohort of students over time, you'll notice consistent growth and that's where the achievement starts to happen, right? So the as the growth continues, we're going to start seeing these bars increase. So in 22 23, the kids who were third graders were 51 51% of them were proficient in language arts. When we followed those same kids to fourth grade, 62% of those kids were proficient in language arts. And that same cohort of kids as fifth graders last year, 64% of them were
028proficient in language arts. We can follow a cohort of kids in middle school, too. In sixth grade, this was three years ago. Sixth graders three years ago, 63% of them were proficient in language arts. when they were seventh graders, 65% of those kiddos were proficient in language arts. And then when they hit eighth grade last year, 70% of them were proficient in language arts. So you'll see that consistent increase in cohorts. We see the same growth um in language arts or in math that we have saw in language arts. So again, when you look at the graph, it looks like there's some variability, but when you track cohorts, you see that growth over time, right? So third graders in 22 23, 61% of those kiddos were proficient. When they moved to fourth grade, we did
029see a dip. They went down to 55%. However, last year as fifth graders, 62. They gained everything they lost the previous year and were still up one additional point of proficiency. We follow a cohort in uh middle school sixth graders from 22 23 46% were proficient. Then they hit seventh grade 56% proficient. Remember in eighth grade our students are split. We have about 50% of our kids taking the algebra course which is a high school level course. The other 50% taking eighth grade math. When we average these two numbers together, we get about look at me 70% of our of our eighth graders proficient in math. >> Geometry. >> Did we just start doing geometry? Is that why it's >> um that is the high school level class. We have a very narrow population of
030kiddos that take that course. Those kids are always proficient. In science, I can't track cohorts in the same way because we only give this test to fifth graders and eighth graders. Um, so the same data doesn't exist over time. But one thing that we are doing in science that I can share with you which is impressive on this slide is looking at the number of kids that we are moving through proficiency levels. So remember I shared with you science has four levels of proficiency and hold on get my One of the things that you'll notice between 23 24 and 2425 we are reducing the number of kids in the lower levels of performance and increasing the number of green on green increasing the number of kids in these green levels. Right? So while it may
031seem like we have a low number of kids that are proficient in science, we are moving kids out of these lower levels and into these more higher levels of proficiency. Right? So these kids in the red last year are now in the yellow. Some of these kids from the yellow last year are now in the green here. That make sense? Hold on. I got to exit out. Get my steps in with this thing. Okay. So, next steps. Let me share with you some of our action planning. Some of this will sound familiar to you because it's um things that have been on our road map or things that we have been talking about. This year we are in the second year of implementation of our um foundational reading program. Last year we implemented foundations for
032K and one. This year we are um in currently in the implementation for foundations for grade 2 and we are as the curriculum team exploring the possibility of implementing foundations in grade three for the 2627 school year. So we're doing some of that that work. Now, in addition, we're going to continue to use I Ready, our um My Path personalized instruction to support specific students needs around particular standards because we know that research tells us that I Ready helps us close gaps for those kiddos that are still at those lower levels of proficiency. And for many of our kids, I Ready can also help to accelerate. We've been using I Ready um on the math side to help accelerate kiddos as well. Um we are continuing to have district goals that focus on language arts.
033This year's goals we have a language arts goal at K to2 and six to 8. Um always ongoing professional development for our staff aligned with our district goals. And then our MTSS model. This time last year I shared with you the significant impact that our MTSS model has had on reducing the number of kids at that those lower levels of proficiency. Um and we are seeing that impacting both language arts and math. So, we're really excited about that. In the area of math, some um similar steps again um as I had shared with you before, we are implementing Envision this year um that math resource in our grade level math classes for grades six and seven. That is an extension. We did we implemented at grades three through five last year. We are also exploring
034implementing Envision up to grade eight next year at the grade eight level math course, the grade level math course, as well as um potentially looking at implementing the Envision resource for second grade math next year as well. So looking at really having a comprehensive and rigorous program for supporting our our kiddos in math in grades K through or two through eight. Again, that continued use of I Ready My Path to support personalized learning needs. Um we've had a significant expansion of online testing using our link platform. Um in the world of math last year when we implemented envisions most of our online testing was done through the SAVIS platform. And while teachers did a fabulous [clears throat] job implementing, what we've discovered is having all our data in link in one place is most impactful
035for us as a district to help to measure growth and support teachers. And and really the link platform can do so much more than some of these other online platforms. So, we've had um some some teams, curriculum teams working together, building those online assessments, getting them ready to roll out and link it um and training and supporting teachers at the school level to utilize linkit for um math assessments. Again, continued focus for our district goals in grades three through eight for math professional development. We're working on more um training for this year focusing with our eighth grade teachers around building thinking classrooms as well as our continued work around the MTSS model for supporting our kids who are below grade level in math in science. As I shared with you before we've been doing a
036slow roll of mystery science and so now we are fully implemented K to5 for mystery science. Um, we have been building science assessments in the link platform as well in our efforts to support kids taking online assessments that mirror those NJSLA assessments so that kids are doing two-part assessments that look like the science assessment that they're seeing on NJSLA that we can build assessments that look the same in our link platform. Um, additionally, we're building threedimensional science assessments for kids across all of the grade levels that are standards aligned. Um, and this year we have a middle school science committee working on building celebration days to raise that level of rigor around science, but also to, God bless you, um, to really get kids excited about learning science and engaged in science. Again, um, Elellena
037often talks in our committees about getting kids excited about science and these science celebration days are really going to do that for our middle school kiddos. I've been doing a lot of talking and running back and forth. Do you want to do questions now or go back to the table and do questions? Mr. Amarosa, what are your Okay. Yeah, this is the uh >> the kids are so excited. >> While the television is going back, one thing I do want to share uh that is aligned with uh Mrs. Montgomery's message of our test score performance and our growth is there's several measures and we don't buy into many of them um of school districts. They have metrics that are questionable regarding rating school districts. There's different ones out there. I don't want to name any
038of them. But um today, coincidentally, we received notification. US News and Worlds, US US News and World Reports, uh, our elementary schools and middle schools were recognized for being in the top 40% in the state of New Jersey. Um, more specifically, our middle schools were in the top 15%. They were almost neck andneck. Um, and the top 15% in the state of New Jersey. And the only reason I'm sharing that is because 50% of their metric is based upon your students performance on standardized tests and JSLA. So it supports the message here tonight when this group that does again we can't put a lot of weight in in these the metrics they all use different metrics when I saw that 50% of the weight is connected to student performance not even growth student performance and
039based on your demographic where they believe that your student should perform um to see our schools rated so highly in the state of New Jersey connected to that just reinforces the message Mr. Montgomery gave this evening of our our district's performance on NJSLa. >> Questions? Sure. Number one is I think the one thing that you said that I 100% agree with. I mean, I agree with almost all of it, but the one thing you said is it really shows the dedication of our students and our teachers to get these numbers to where they are today. >> And they should absolutely be proud of those numbers. It was a a wholehearted combined effort >> from the students, the teachers, the administrative staff, the left administrator, >> the curriculum department. Yes. Thank you. And so my my
040first question is based off of the data that was presented to us, >> are we comfortable in saying, maybe not yet, but I I'm comfortable in saying it, that those those learning gaps from CO are I don't want to say non-existent because I think they're going to be there at least for a little bit, but they're >> Oh, they're still there, right? >> Most certainly still there. >> Not what they once were. Listen, we prior to COVID saw a pretty steady decline in our student achievement and we are working our way back to where we were co and then our you know the goal is obviously to get us back to where we were 10 years ago >> 10 year right but co was only five years ago so yeah so when you look at
041it from those that perspective and then my second question is >> and I love the fact that you said too that our students are starting to get >> not starting I think they've always kind of been excited about science again. >> Um I think I mentioned this during the the retreat back in summertime is I would love for us to start bringing back some oldfashioned science science fair or steam maybe they're maybe steam fairs I think they're called now right or something. >> So there's actually no research to support that that impacts student achievement in science and we've been looking pretty extensively. I think these middle school science celebrations are going to sort of speak to what you would like to see, only um not necessarily have the same impact in terms of projects that
042kids are doing at home with their families, but will increase excitement and engagement around themes that um that have science connections that have kids working across grade levels and across classes um together in the world of science and and science data. Um, you know, we talked at the curriculum committee earlier this evening around the challenges with this science assessment. Um, and when 30% of our students are scoring proficient and we are outperforming kids across the state by more than 5%, there's there's something more than just how we're something more to the formula than just how we're teaching science that's bigger than what's happening in Freehold Township. I think we're doing an extraordinary job responding to what the data tells us and our kids, you know, slow and steady progress um towards, you know, continuing to
043move that needle up is impressive and I think if we keep chipping away at it, but until the state takes a look at the test, what the test is measuring and how the test measures kids performance in science as opposed to potentially in reading, then um we're going to just keep chasing a a low bar. >> I do think also when you're talking about science, I think mystery science is will be continue to contribute greatly to our students acquisition of science concepts and skills. It's highly engaging and it's also scaffolded as they're going through the concept and then applying it in in real life through experiments and what they're doing. So mystery science is an outstanding program and I think now that it's fully >> it's fully implemented to we'll see an impact there too
044in their enthusiasm and also performance. >> Yeah. And I I mean I think we've already seen that in the classroom both with kids and with teachers like teaching science is fun with mystery science and I think because teachers are enjoying it so much kids are enjoying it. Yeah. Mrs. Lambert, >> I I was going to ask if we >> um we we were always good in this district about doing crosscurricular type work and and a lot of what I saw um and it makes me think of science um thinking of my own child, you know, who who's yes in her 20s was >> because she was challenged a little bit more in the LA world, it was the related arts teachers in science and social studies that chipped in the help in that world by
045bringing the reading aspect to their classroom at her level to bring her along, >> right? >> Are we doing that in the reverse? Are we bringing science into ELA and math in an application type way >> or are we not going that way? >> Yes, some of both. I I do I do understand your question and and I I I think that that sort of speaks to again pre- pandemic a lot of our curriculum was written so interwoven from a thematic perspective that teachers couldn't teach language arts or science without the other because our units were we had these these problem- based learning units that were so interwoven. But what we discovered in looking at our student assessment data was that kids were not doing well in language arts or in science as a result
046of that. And so some of that curriculum work that we've been doing over the last four or five years is really separating out how we're teaching the language arts standards and how we're teaching the science standards, but >> also having teachers across content assume responsibility. So there's like a chunk of the language arts standards that speak to how to teach language arts in the world of historical texts. And so we're addressing language arts standards in both the language arts classrooms and in the social studies classrooms. And so that content goes back and forth. So the standards are inherently forcing us to do that. Math in the same way with like data literacy, it's expecting us to do that. So we're looking at science data in math and math data in science. >> Does that make
047sense? >> Yeah. >> Does that answer your question? >> I thought that. Okay. >> Yeah. >> But in general, stronger readers tend to do better >> across the board. Across the board. >> And I think that was really your point. Right. >> Right. Yeah. >> Readers. >> Yeah. And and we've done a lot to build in um curricular resources that speak to that and like I know I've spoken with this board before about the um resource we use uh Newella which is a you know we spend a lot of money on it but it has a social studies component, a science component, a language arts component. Um, and we have been doing training with our teachers in all of those departments so that it it is a resource that is used across content areas to
048support math literacy in language arts classes and science literacy in math classes. Does that make sense? >> Sure. >> I just read a report from Harvard was around a month ago that they're not talking so much about the deficit of learning so much. They went back to 2015 and 2016 and the common denominator was cell phones. >> So they now analyzing that data it's not all because >> well I mean I I you know >> Yeah. I I mean I don't I haven't read that research but that wouldn't anecdotally that wouldn't surprise me. >> Yeah. >> One of those articles at the end. [clears throat] >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And it was very good. >> Yeah. So the art so the article said that learning loss isn't due to co it's due to self.
049>> No it's saying that it started before co >> it started before co the learning loss which is a statistic that you gave. >> Yeah I we we saw a a decline in our student achievement prior to the pandemic. >> There you go. >> Yeah. So the pandemic accelerated it ex significantly. But >> as we all know we're all distracted. >> Yes. >> So could you imagine the children? >> Thank you. I'm going to look for that article. >> Thank you. [laughter] >> Quick quick question. Sure. Um >> I think first the the fact that uh all three areas are above the state proficiency rate is great. So well done. Um >> didn't do it but thank you. [clears throat] [laughter] >> Well done to the royal we. >> Thank you. Um, I guess my
050question is since we're on a science topic right now, >> science is 30% below the other two for us. >> Yes. >> What what do you think accounts for? You mentioned that is it testing or is like do you think just chipping away is going to get >> us up to that high or is there something else we should be doing? >> Well could help with >> I mean I think there's a lot of things that could help with it. I think the most significant thing that can help with it is out of our control and that lives in Trenton. So I I can't control that. I think that there the state needs to revisit the assessment and how the assessment's written and how what the expectations are on the district in terms of the
051delivery of the assessment. They changed the assessment. >> No, I know when did when did it change to this one? >> Three, four years ago. >> Right around the pandemic. Yes. >> They changed the assessment. >> Everybody's did everybody the scores fell off dramatically. There are um there are two more years on this contract for the with the state for the assessment. Um at that point I imagine the state will revisit and look to rewrite the assessment as we are having a new language arts and math assessment this year. So I think that that is significant I think from the perspective of what are the things that we can control. We can control our curriculum and instruction and continuing to chip away at moving forward. um we can continue to analyze our data and make
052thoughtful decisions about what we need to do to train our teachers and support our kids in being successful and give them all of those tools. Um but when only 25% of the kids in New Jersey can pass the test, I think that I think that the problem is bigger than what lives here in our district. >> Isn't it all also the amount of time we spend on it? the amount of >> No, I would say during the pandemic that was an issue, but it certainly is not the case now. Kids have lang have uh science in the middle school every other day for the full block. >> I think there's an adequate amount of time we spend on it compared to, you know, language arts and math. That's might be why the statistics are a
053little bit skewed because I think some percentage of that comes from just how much >> we don't allocate any less time to that content area than than our regional or other districts around the state. Um, so I mean I I don't think that our schedule >> comparison to math and language arts. It seems to me we >> Well, yes, that's true. I mean we have we you know spend two hours a day on language arts would always be slightly lower. >> So >> yeah, we there's no more time. >> No, I get that. Yeah. >> And then you'll be pulling away from the other stuff. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean we don't there isn't more time in the day, >> but our scores were >> our scores are really our scores >> always better than
054language arts and math until the change. >> Yes, we historically always did really well in science. >> Correct. Until >> so did across the state. Across the state when the new test came out, everyone tanked and they haven't rewritten the test since that time. >> And that was because our curriculum wasn't aligned with that test. This is not No, the test is flawed. We believe the test >> the test itself is flawed. >> But when you like Becky said, when you have 30% of the state >> and only 20, it's less than that. 25% of the of the kids in the state can pass the test. I think the issue is bigger than I think we've done everything in our power in terms of curriculum, staff training. Again, common assessments. >> Yeah, I common assessments,
055assessments built on a digital platform where kids are taking tests that look like NJSLA. We are continuing to add more and more of these things so that we can, as Dr. Casey said, continue to chip away and move our proficiency um higher as long as the test is flawed. I don't I don't see a day where we will have our proficiency levels at at the same place as language arts and math. Not because of things we can't do, but because of the test itself. >> Interesting. >> Do we have any other questions? Well, on behalf of the board, I want to congratulate you. I already did before, but and your whole team and all of our teachers and administrators and everyone involved. Seeing that chart grow is just when I I took a sneak peek
056at it on Friday and I I emailed you right away. >> Well, thank you. >> So, we're going to move on um to the bullying investigation report. >> I can work first. So I wanted to share with um the board that the New Jersey Association of um NJASCD will transfer is hosting a transformational learning summit. So it's the state chapter of ASCD. Um the theme is leadership for the whole child and Mrs. Montgomery and Dr. Curus will be presenting lifting the whole child unlocking potential with circles and support. Miss Montgomery will be highlighting our MTSS model and Dr. Curus will be highlighting our restorative practices model uh specifically seal and resto um circles in our classrooms and the reduction that we saw last year 41% in in hip cases going into our bullying report. Keep
057in mind as I shared in our committee it's a month so it's we haven't had a meeting in a month. Um, and since that last meeting, there were 12 cases and all 12 were founded. On this evening's agenda, you have later, so I know there's a motion there. Ignore that. That's uh justformational. There's a motion later on for you to approve the HIV district and school grades 2425 um grades to remind you. the grades are a self assessment done by our school safety teams in each school building and that those grades are connected to compliance with our state requirements in harassment, intimidation, and bullying. So, it's our adherence to the law and the requirements of the anti-bullying bill of rights and that is what this is measuring. So, our school district, Dr. Brethower, leads a
058pretty strict process in um harassment, intimidation, and bullying. Our counselors and our administrators are excellent at intervening and following the process and we're well aligned and you'll see high scores because of our adherence to the anti-bullying bill of rights and you'll see that later. All right, my certification for the month. I Robert Dvita, the school business administrator/sport secretary certifies that as of September 30th, 2005, no line item has been overextended in violation of NJAC6A23A-1610C3 and that sufficient funds are available to meet the the district's financial obligations for the remainder of the year. >> That's it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> This is the first opportunity for public participation. If anyone wishes to address the board, please write your name and address on the sign-in sheet and state your name for the record. Statements are limited
059to three minutes and should not be abusive, obscene, or defamatory in nature. And this would be on agenda items only. Any tears? Okay, seeing none, we'll go right into personnel policy and communications. Mrs. Spieler, >> good evening everyone. Um, yes, I want to congratulate you too. I think that's what our biggest well everybody yes absolutely it's collaborative um but our co learning loss was everybody's concern right so congratulations thank you and um so we did meet tonight as a committee um myself um Dr. Breathau Dr. Casey and Mr. Williams >> that would be me >> yes [laughter] and Dr. um Dixie and we discussed um the use of electronic policies or cell phone use in the school. We reviewed it and um that will come up for first reading next next time and we also
060discussed the draft of the AI um guidelines and to be continued as well. So I would like to move the following items. >> Thank you. >> Number three, second reading of the policy as listed. Number four, retirement as listed. Number five, resignation as listed. Number six, adjustment adjust resignation date as listed. Position control as listed. Number eight, new employment as listed. Number nine, established start date as listed. Number 10, change of assignments and salary adjustments as listed. Number 11, temporary change of assignments and salary adjustments as listed. Number 12, leaves of absence. Number 13, unpaid days as listed. Number 14, PTO honoraria. Number 15, PTO update as listed. Number 16, district honor area update as listed. Number 17, additional compensation safety care training as listed. Number 18, translator interpreter as listed. Number 19, affirm bullying
061investigation findings as listed. Number 20, HIP district school grades 24 to 25 school year as listed. Number 21, student teacher practicum observation placement as listed. Number 22, curriculum committees as listed. Number 23, district mentor as listed. Number 24, certified substitutes as listed. Number 25, non-certified substitutes as listed. And that would be it. Do we have a second? Uh, any questions? >> Okay. Seeing none, could I get a roll call? >> Mrs. Brand, Dr. Casey, >> yes. >> Miss Crosby, >> yes. >> Mr. Bulo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lambert, >> yes. >> Mrs. Spieler, >> yes. >> Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> Mrs. O. Sullivan, >> yes. >> Mr. Ramaroso, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Curriculum. Uh, Mrs. Brandt. >> And thank you. Thank you, Mrs. um Rebecca for the beautiful presentation. Uh,
062tonight the curriculum committee did meet. in attendance was Emily Crosby, Elanor O Sullivan, and Rebecca Montgomery. We reviewed the agenda, and uh we discussed the curriculum committee meeting. Uh we reviewed the uh the new multilingual guidelines and exit form. We reviewed the AI guidelines and reviewed the DM and NJSLA test data presentation which we all saw. I'd like to move the following. Number three, home instruction as follows. Number four, course reimbursement as listed. And that's all. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. Any questions for curriculum other than the many that we've already had? >> All right. >> Question. >> All right. Uh seeing no more questions. Um all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Extensions. Finance, facilities, and transportation. Mrs. Lambert. >> Okay. Good evening. Um the finance facilities
063and transportation committee meeting met this evening. In attendance was myself, Mr. Amaroso, Mr. Gojula, Mr. Tvida, and Miss Williams. And uh we discussed the following items. Um we discussed increasing the substitute custodian rate to be more competitive with surrounding districts. In theory, the next step will be it will go to the personnel committee because it is a personnel item and then we will discuss it as a as a whole board. Um, as you know, finance, facilities, and transportation falls under dura's purview and he's having a hard time getting substitute custodians and staffing those positions. So, that's what's driving that. I guess it'll move to your committee for next meeting and we'll discuss it as a board. We discussed the construction um update next week on the 4th and the 5th. Our administrators will go to
064Skittle for meetings for the next steps in the construction that is being funded by the referendum. Uh all eight uh district um building level administrators will go as well to see the impacts on their buildings. Um there'll be renderings. Um the Speasel architects will come to our board meeting in November and discuss a timeline and they will have renderings then. So we'll have a better idea of what the whole construction timeline will look like probably some point in December. Right now we are replacing the roof at the ECLC. The first uh piece of roof and gutters um will take place over the days that we're closed next week and perhaps into the weekend um if needed. Um the three days next week and weekends is when most of that will take place. Next would be
065Applegate which is another rip and tear roof. Um there's a lot of work to be done there, proper slope. So that will probably start over spring break due to the nature of the work that has to be done on that roof. Um with regard to all construction in all eight buildings, Bob received all the asbestos reports. Um as you know, there's asbestos in almost everything somewhere. So it would be important for the construction manager and the architects to know where there's a possibility that it could be. Um, it was placed, uh, Ally put it all in a binder and, uh, he hasn't read the reports. They just came in this week. They were just received, but that binder will probably go around with the construction manager, uh, when we start. Um, anything else? >> No.
066>> Okay. >> It's We're getting close. We're getting We're getting to the beginning of the end. >> Yeah. So, [laughter] >> the end. I know people have been asking for very specific timelines, but that that we just don't have yet. Probably December after the November meeting with the architect. >> Once we're done with these last two meetings, um unfortunately, then the bureaucrats get involved and it's got to go to DCA for a period of time for review and then it has to um a section of the bid documents have to go to the Department of Treasury and they get up to 90 days to review. So, um we're hoping to still go out to bid February, March. Um, but we'll hopefully, again, that's why Mrs. Lambert said it'd be great to know in November, but
067I think because of these other two entities getting involved here, we'll probably know better Decemberish hopefully final timeline. So >> um we discussed the beginning of the 26 27 budget and what the impact of the bond costs will be in addition to healthc care increase um which is looking like it will not be anything less than 10%. So, if we keep our general fund um levy at 2%. Um there's a big deficit there to make up. If you add in the bond costs and then the bond refunding savings, we're probably looking at a net of 5.3%. For the 26 27 budget right now, uh what it ultimately will look like when all the final numbers are in, Bob will let us know. you want to add? >> Oh, good. >> No, I mean we I'll
068have the refunding great >> refunding happens next week on that last section of the bonds and then um what I'm understanding out there is that like we're not going to get a giant I think the assessed value of the town has a maxed out but we're not going to get those double digit growth uh amounts that we've had the last couple years to kind of spread it out amongst the tax base. So it might be a traditional 2 3% year. Uh but again the the numbers that our financial advisory gave us uh back in March and then they updated again in July don't take into account any growth in the assessed value. Um and they have everything as of the numbers of the town's values of 10 one of 24. So I was able to
069change the numbers a little bit. So that's just a starting point if you're at least talk about the the bottom line number and then we go from there. Um I guess on the agenda you see the CNPM1 uh documents or you have them on the B in your board packet. Um basically what that document is is that when you have bonds and you have uh money out there, public money I guess better way to put it. There's a minimum required amount that you need to spend on your buildings and that would be 199,000. We budget 1.4 four because we can't do anything for 199,000. So, but we are required to submit this document. So, that's what that is. Um, and we discussed a transportation issue um and all agenda items. With that, I will move
070um the following items. Um item number three, the secretary and treasurer's reports for the month of September. Item four, bills and claims in the amount of 5,147,69030 approved by me. >> Thank you. [laughter] Item five, travel and related expenses as listed. Item six, the transfers as listed. Item seven, PTO honoraria as listed. And uh thank you to the arts and school PTO for funding those on your area. Item eight, nursing services as listed. Item nine, the memorandum of agreement with the Freehold Township uh police department for the fiscal year 2526. Item 10, out of district transportation contracts with Moesc as listed. Item 11, out of district contracts updated as listed for the 2526 school year. 12, disposal of surplus property with gov deals as listed. 13, uh, disposal of, um, items that are no longer
071needed. Uh, there's an attachment if you want to see the list. Item 14, um, contract ratify a contract with SHI, um, as listed. 15, the comprehensive maintenance plan and form M1, which I just discussed with you. 16, fiscal year 26, teach STEM classes and non-public schools grant salaries as listed. Um, I don't know, we discussed this last year. Does any if anybody has a question on that, I'll just have Neil explain quickly what it is. Um item 17, acceptance of RSP for RFP for commissioning agent, approval of the commissioning agent in um item 18 and I think that's all I have. >> Excellent. >> Does anybody have a question on the STEM teaching thing? Okay. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> I need to second it. But I do have question and
072I apologize if this might have been answered at a previous meeting. Do we have an update on the uh insurance situation with Donovan? Is that been >> We've not heard back yet. >> Okay. So I'm I'm not losing it. >> I suspect >> relative. >> My my gut president, they're not going to do it. >> It's >> Yeah, I could be hopefully I'm wrong, >> but I suspect with the timing I I don't know. So again, I'm not sure how I don't think underwriters move quickly when it's unless they're trying to make money for themselves. But >> as soon as I find out, I'll let you know. >> I wasn't sure if I did some. >> Yeah, we just said last meeting we did everything they asked of us. And >> I would think when
073we're >> Yeah, I would think when we're done with all of the referendum work, they should look at that school in a different lens at that time since all the contracting work would be done. But I could be wrong. >> We've discussed before that once the referendum is done, you have an opportunity to go back to whether it's Beasley is our carrier, if it's somebody else at that point in time and to potentially reset the deductible because right now with the age of our buildings um and the equipment, it's solely based upon when was the original footprint built. >> So the older the building, the higher the deductible. I think Donovan was $250,000. West Freehold would be we probably I don't know the exact number probably 100 150 because it's only 20 years old. Um
074but yeah so we we do have an opportunity as the projects um are completed >> to go back and work with our insurance broker I would think and then to try to try to push and yeah Brennan who's our broker she uh we discussed this last year during the whole Donovan issue probably right around this time. So >> so we are insured now. >> Correct. We have we have environmental insurance for all of our buildings just that Laura Donovan is excluded from mold coverage. >> So right now Laura Donovan then does not have there's no safety net. No, but we've been as we've reported extra diligent over there. Um you know we and it's part of the letter that went out to Beasley. We had a company come in train our maintenance staff, our lead
075custodians on what to look for. They were all tasked with on a daily basis in the summertime to walk the buildings. Um, and if they saw anything, if anything looked funny, smelt funny, wasn't usual, report immedely to the lead and then called Steve and Nick. Um, so, you know, they've been much more uh diligent. We we closed the dampers as much as we could to minimize the amount of fresh air that was coming into an unoccupied classroom over the summer. So yeah, unfortunately Beasley is one of the few good carriers around. Um I'm sure we can get something, but it the cost might I I don't know this, but I know most districts in this area use Beasley because it is the best insurance and there's not a lot of people who want to get
076involved in school buildings that are 50 or 60 years old. Um and so >> we set aside or we think of setting aside contingency funds. We have a maintenance reserve account of over $2 million. So if we had to, god [snorts] forbid, but by board resolution, if we spent all our maintenance monies to money to have to remediate another situation, um we can tap into that by a simple majority of the board vote. That's why at the end of the year when we do um the surplus management, I always try to make sure that we replenish because we take out between 300 and $500,000 a year during the budget cycle to be able to do more in our maintenance budget than what we could by uh itself um that we try to replenish that so
077this way we can continue that and have money in case that you know something bad happens. >> Laura Donovan was the only school that didn't have the mall covered based on the age of the school. You know, it's because of the amount of claim was over a million dollars. >> So, >> we had it. They refused to renew it. >> Correct. Be kind of like if you had multiple claims at your home, you they would either they would either drop you or they would they would >> one of your many. >> Yes. >> The interesting thing is once you get points on a license, there's a, you know, a few years elapse and they take them off. I wonder if you're branded moldy forever or >> they ever stop looking at or do they ever
078ask you? You're like a moldy school. You don't get insurance. >> Is there a questionnaire when you apply for insurance? Have you ever had a clean? And do they ask the time frame? >> The the broker sits with me and it takes a whole day. >> We go through then I have to give some over to Joe Brow. Joe's got to go back 10 years. >> Uh it it depends what type of insurance. If you're talking school board's liability insurance, they go back on the claims for a number of years. Um, it's each application is different. We probably fill out 10 different applications. A lot of the, you know, they help us have it pre-filled when they come, but we spend a good couple of hours with them and then number of people have to
079like, it's gotten easier. Um, but it's still a process. >> Okay. Do we have any other questions for Mrs. Lambert or Mr. Dvita on finance? While we're in finance, at our last meeting, we approved a very large donation from the Freel Township Education Foundation. A good amount of that was willed to us uh will to the students of the Barcala School that Miss Montgomery was very daring and uh ventured and did her presentation tonight. That 86 inch interactive board is um what we've been able to purchase for every instructional space at the Barcelo School based um from the um estate of Angela Duckett and they should be received in district within the next couple of weeks and we have a team that will be assembling and deploying and then almost the entire Eisenhower school with
080the exception of nine units um were then paid for um by us and part of that money from the ed foundation itself about $45,000 and so those are two weeks behind and will be delivered to Eisenhower. So we're hoping by the new year um we'll be able to engage the staff in some training but there the one that we have in district is very popular in the in in the middle school. We have one right now. Um, and so we're hoping that excitement will spread. And I've realized tonight we probably, if we ever get one for here, need a 10,000 in television because that didn't seem so big. >> I couldn't read the data. >> I imagine in a classroom it's easier. >> Yeah, it's a smaller space. >> Plus, we're like old and blind
081now. That could be that could be it. It's hard to see, but no, you it is much easier sitting in that same seat to see a presentation that Becky gave, you know, a couple weeks ago up on the screen. >> So, we can decide to be pushed forward. >> We can decide what I was like, >> yeah, but that is that is the technology I shared that you would get to see it. Um, it's Wi-Fi. >> Yep. We can broadcast, you can write on it. So, uh, thanks again to that foundation and the initiative is the ABC initiative. most recently named active boards in classrooms. >> Yeah, it is. It is pretty awesome. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, so I need a take a vote here. All those in favor say I. >>
082I. >> Any opposed? >> There you go. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Um, do we have any old business? >> Old business. Yeah, old business. Yeah, I guess it's old business at this point. Um, I did discuss this with uh with our committee members. Um, so for those who may not know, um, I want to say, let's call it two weeks ago, unfortunately, my daughter Tegan collapsed during her cross country meet. It was a pretty scary moment. And I just want to recognize a few people that really came through from my daughter and my family. Uh, Coach Snow, Coach Mter, um, Mr. Ascalles. Did I pronounce Ascalles? A parent whom I hopefully is watching, uh, who drove his pickup truck across the field to get my daughter to bring her to a safe area
083while the kids were trying to run around her. Uh, and then there was also an ER doctor. Again, we did not get her name. Uh, but hopefully if she's watching and follows the meeting, she saw this. It was a It was a It was a pretty scary moment. And I just wanted to recognize all those people that that you know took care of the situation. And I I mean I know it was my daughter, but it it it gives great comfort to know that this would happen for any student uh that had to go through this or any family. And I do Neil sent me an email a few hours later while we were still at the at the hospital and everything. So I do want to just recognize Neil for, you know, thinking of
084us and uh the list of people that I already mentioned. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you to everybody. >> How's she doing? She's doing good. We found out when she hit the ground uh yesterday she went to she passed all the cardiology tests and everything. Uh we did find out yesterday that when she fainted and hit the ground, she sustained um a major concussion. So, she's literally been kind of traveling around and doing stuff with a with a concussion. So, now we're going to be able to take care of that part of it. And she'll be she'll be good, you know, in a week or two now that we're she'll start um postconussion physical therapy uh this this week. I can relate to that because my daughter when she was playing at Fairley Dickinson
085and also Jackson High School, she sustained concussions. >> Yeah. Well, uh it's it's very scary. >> She's an ultra I mean she's a high level soccer player and my wife is always afraid of a concussion during soccer. Never in our wildest dreams did we think it would happen during cross country running. The least contact sport that you could have. So, but anyway, again, thank you to everybody who was involved and Neil coming over from Cina when he heard got the 911 over the the radio and he didn't have to do that. So, thank you. >> Our staff is incredibly trained. >> 100%. >> They are like that. Yeah. Every situation through all the years that I've been on this board, like God bless them. >> And I wasn't at the meeting. My wife was and
086my wife was and apparent um uh an Eisenhower parent uh Casey Krennic I might as well recognize him as well called me and I was still at home work and I jumped I ran right over and followed him to the hospital in the ambulance. So I definitely again I forgot Casey's but he was the one who alerted me to what was going on Mr. Krennic. So thank you. >> Thanks. Thanks for sharing and good luck. Hope she is better. >> Do we have any other old business? Any new business? Okay, now we'll go into second president's remarks. Um the only thing I wanted to uh say further um about school boards is it's the theme this year was kind of AI and most of the uh sessions that I attended and I know I attended
087one uh with Elellena um in particular the very first one and there were others Neil we we attended sessions and I mean AI is a a very very expansive topic and I know we're working on it within our own school district But I wanted to turn key at least a few points to this board since not everyone was able to go to all the sessions. And I would say the number one thing for us to start thinking about the number one theme was data privacy and security. Out of all the sessions I went to that seems to be the prevailing prevailing worry at a board level. There were a lot of nuts and bolts issues that I'm sure policy will handle and straight will take care of. But for board members, I went through all
088the things that they were talking about. And for us, um, you know, looking at fake information, for example, they talked a lot about how a lot of lawyer briefs are being entered and they're not real cases. And a lot of times that's getting caught up in AI. And then if you actually go to search for something, you think something's a real case. It actually was just totally made up. So the integrity of what's out there in AI has to be looked at. And at a board level, we have to be careful with information that we're given and that we don't submit, you know, letters or paperwork and try to get an AI generated report with sensitive information on it. So, um, I encourage everyone to read up a little bit on it. Keep an eye
089out there, um, to see what's going on. Um, but with that, I would also like to say if you look at those 23 companies that I gave everyone, we already have a lot of AI running our district. Look at the amount of management and computing that is done to keep this district going. I mean, those are pretty little package softwares with bows on them that we input and output data, but really it's no different than what AI is really already doing. So, it's how we use this um new world of AI. And so, I just like to say be careful when you're online. >> Can I just share I um absolutely our plan is so Mrs. Montgomery and I worked with an AI team of teachers across the district. Our plan um Dr. Casey shared
090after our last curriculum um our last personnel committee meeting two articles that led us in conversation, Miss Montgomery and I to have two separate guidance documents, one for students and one for staff um with some articles that he had uh given that gave us some background in the need for one that's separate for staff. Um and after that committee we generated a a plan AI usage plan for both um gave it to the committee to review and Mrs. Montgomery reviewed it tonight in curriculum. We reviewed it tonight in personnel and policy and that's how we can plan to continue. We'll review them. Um I don't we didn't catch up yet for curriculum but from a personnel perspective we as typical ran out of time. So, um, the committee instead of waiting till the next meeting
091is going to communicate via email if there's any feedback or things they want us to look at, we'll communicate between the two committees at our level, make revisions. Um, and the plan is we try it and then revise as we train our staff and our students to to use it. Yeah, that I I shared with um the curriculum committee tonight, all of the guidance and the research we've been reading has suggested that um with the implementation of AI policies that um starting with guidelines first and like navigating guidelines in draft format is the most impactful because we need to try things out and see what works and make adjustments before we move to the official, you know, adoption of policy. So >> yeah, the overriding >> I think in our committee we had a a
092really good conversation about a lot of good questions from from everybody. So I thought yeah, I thought it was really great. >> Yeah, we have to keep in mind that it's a tool and if used correctly, it's actually a very positive thing. If it could advance a student, it's a wonderful thing, but you know, how this all pans out is still on the horizon. but view it as a tool and um if used correctly, I think uh we'll be fine as a district. With that, um I will wish everyone a happy Halloween that's coming up on Friday. [laughter] >> Thanksgiving favorite holiday. >> Is it your favorite holiday now? >> Halloween day. >> The day I came to central office and left in elementary school was the last time I put on a costume. [laughter]
093That's okay. >> Don't want to dress up for it. [laughter] >> With that, I will uh I will move into uh public participation. Um this is the second opportunity for public participation. If anyone wishes to address the board, please write your name and address on the sign-in sheet. State your name for the record. Statements are limited to three minutes and should not be abusive, obscene, or defamatory in nature. Anybody uh want to address on any issue. All right, seeing none, can I get a motion to adjurnn? I'll move. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> Any oppose? Thank you and good night.